"A trio of fiddle, concertina and guitar is not an uncommon combination of instruments but if you start digging down into what informs the sounds and what informs those instruments, you get a very different picture and that’s what I’m enjoying so much." Liz Knowles
When Music Network organises tours around the country, one of their ideas – very much to be admired – is to select musicians who have not performed together beforehand as an ensemble.
Of course, and of necessity, these will always be virtuoso players and singers in their own individual musical lives, but this feature brings a lot extra in terms of freshness, originality, and a chance for an audience to hear, see and enjoy what this innovative approach might bring.
THE CONCEPT
It takes imagination and care on the part of Music Network to choose the performers, and to mix and match their talents and skills to best effect – ensuring closeness and compatibility on the one hand but also novelty, contrast and variety on the other. For the musicians, it creates both an adventure and a challenge. There is probably an element of risk here as well since it is taking a step beyond safer, more standard options, but the reward for everyone is a night that should be interesting, exciting, satisfying, and memorable.
THE MUSICIANS
There certainly is variety in the careers, experience and artistic achievements of the three people taking to the stage tonight – they even come from three different continents and that’s only the beginning:
Liz Knowles fiddle/hardanger fiddle
Niwel Tsumbu guitar/vocals
Niall Vallely concertina
Liz Knowles (fiddle and hardanger fiddle) is travelling to Ireland from the USA for the tour and has built up a lifetime of skills in different musical forms which started with classical and continued through traditional Irish music to many other areas. She also teaches, composes, writes, produces and more.
Niall Vallely (concertina) is from a famous traditional music family in Co. Armagh and now lives in Cork. He too has a remarkable list of musical achievements to his name – playing in many settings and groupings, teaching, composing and arranging.
Niwel Tsumbu (guitar and vocals) is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has lived in Ireland for nearly 20 years, in Cork now also as it happens. He is a true virtuoso with many influences built up over years and he also composes music. His playing has been described as “unique”, “exciting”, “elegant”, “fluent” and much more, you name it! The traditional singing he learned in his youth in the Congo will add something special to the concert tonight.
Niwel has a very open philosophy – his musical learning is wide, and his listening has been to different genres like jazz, classical, rock, folk, rumba, and more. In jazz guitar, he listened chronologically to Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass through to George Benson, and he likes to think of music as being the same language everywhere but with distinct accents “Jamaicans can speak English, Nigerians can speak English, Irish people can speak English - the same language. Music is made of sounds but played with different accents”.
THE REHEARSAL
So, in January this year our three musical adventurers met in person in Cork City for a number of days’ rehearsal to scope out ideas, explore repertoire and get to know each other musically. They all thought it was very useful time spent, full of enthusiasm.
They each brought pieces of music and ideas along to try out with the others and Niall remembers that some of these came together very quickly and that it was an interesting process: “it ended up as a nice mixture of structure and tunes and some things where you know what’s happening, and then other things that are more outside your own experience or comfort zone”. As they were sorting out the repertoire, he felt they were achieving “a balance of fast things and slow, some fairly intense and others fairly easy going, with a sense of each of us having our own voice.”
Liz felt this time together was “a gift, really fulfilling” and was everything she had hoped for. Most importantly, they all got on well and she felt that for her, a trio was the perfect combination for achieving balance in preparation for a venture of this sort. A trio of fiddle, concertina and guitar “on the face of it, is not an uncommon combination of instruments but if you start digging down into what informs the sounds and what informs those instruments, you get a very different picture and that’s what I’m enjoying so much.”
For Niwel, the rehearsal time exceeded expectations – he found his partners to be the type of musicians who are of course interested in traditional music, but “they also love other types of music – classical, contemporary and lots of other stuff”. The time in Cork was usefully spent talking, thinking and trying out pieces – it was an honest encounter, and they were “finding a space to create something beautiful”. Niwel himself likes to try out ideas and see what works and he found that “the guys were the same.”
When first approached by Music Network, all three were very pleased to be asked – as would any professional musician - and first of all they checked out what might be involved. They were in touch with each other online and discovered that they were on the same page as regards the possibilities and what their hopes would be for a collaboration. All three were decidedly looking for something above and beyond what one of them referred to as just a “surface level” engagement, which can sometimes happen when musicians are placed together in an ad hoc combination, and it just does not go any deeper for whatever reason.
Liz felt that an active musical conversation would happen between the three of them, “if we really - get our teeth into what it is we’re interested in, and also what we see in the others’ playing and what we can bring to the table”.
For his part, Niall thought that the ingredients were all present and that all three were keen on not “just sitting on the stage”. He was confident from the beginning it would work out and that they “would make more connections between the three of us”.
THE MUSIC
Niall did think about how strongly rooted in traditional music their concert programme would turn out to be – its “traditional-ness” as he termed it – given his own and Liz’s strong involvement with traditional music over the years. But Niwel also has experience of playing with people such as Micheál Ó Súilleabháin, Steve Cooney, Dervish, Kila, Mel Mercier and with Niall himself. He has had a lot of engagement with the idiom over time and listens to lots of traditional music. So, as Niall says, what emerged in the rehearsal were traditional tunes, modern versions of traditional music and then “just tunes” - pieces which came up there and then in reaction to something played or suggested.
And then there is the singing - in fact, Niall felt that one of the most traditional musical elements they worked on was Niwel’s singing from his youth spent in the Congo. One of his songs is “Kanzenzenze” which comes from generations in his family – his mother, his grandmother and farther back. It’s a communal song - also a game - which counts the fingers and toes of the singers who are sitting in a line and whoever the last note lands on in each round has to drop out of the game. So, the song has moved from originally being something very traditional in the Congo to his own arrangement for solo guitar and voice and again now to something new and different for this tour.
There was a feeling that having a rehearsal early in the year - in January - was an advantage because it allowed time for everyone to mull over the ideas so far and for things to settle and develop in an organic way. Niall likes “the idea of things being open with an amount of improvisation, not knowing what’s going to happen next. I think from a traditional music perspective that’s kind of terrifying on one level but there’s a part of me that’s sort of grown to like that – the tightrope of not knowing what’s going to come out”.
And what does Niwel find attractive in a piece of music? - “sometimes it’s the groove that gets me, sometimes a very beautiful singing voice or the lyrics, sometimes the actual arrangements – there are many different ways. Sometimes the piece doesn’t really make me feel good or bad or like I want to dance or anything like that, but technically it’s very interesting and I might just enjoy it for the pure technicality of it. But feeling is the best way to connect to people – to touch people that way. Nobody really knows how that works in those moments - technique is more of a clear way to do something, but feeling is the true magic!”.
Liz is conscious that there are many aspects and elements in having a musical life, including being “patient enough and ok with the uncomfortableness of not having it all figured out and that there are things that take time. But also, if you play traditional music, there’s a real attention to what came before you, to honouring, to having this character of traditional music standing next to you while at the same time becoming the artist or the musician or the thinker or the person you really are”.
When it comes to what audiences might enjoy on the night, Liz says that she is “very invested in having people enjoy what they’ve come to hear and if the hard work has been done to create something that feels authentic and true, this will come through to the audience”. Niwel believes “music is for the listener and although you’re the first listener yourself when you’re playing, I want people to enjoy it, I want people to love it”. Niall feels confident the night’s music should be very interesting “with a variety of colour and texture and will hit quite a few bases”.
The tour goes from an opening night in Listowel to the end concert in Letterkenny and many points in between over ten days. It sounds full of promise, enjoyment, interest and excitement for those who come to hear it and we wish all the best to the three as they take to the road for their tour and to the stage for this evening’s concert!
By Peter Browne
Liz Knowles, Niwel Tsumbu and Niall Vallely are touring to Kerry, Laois, Cork, Galway, Dublin, Waterford, Kildare, Roscommon and Donegal from 3 - 14 May 2023.